{"id":12966,"date":"2019-11-16T13:12:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-16T13:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-literature-2\/four-tones-in-chinese-han-yu-sheng-diao-2\/"},"modified":"2019-11-16T13:12:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-16T13:12:02","slug":"four-tones-in-chinese-han-yu-sheng-diao-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/fr\/four-tones-in-chinese-han-yu-sheng-diao-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Four tones in Chinese \u6c49\u8bed\u58f0\u8c03 (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
 Four to<\/em>nes in Chinese —<\/p>\n

-Why learn Chinese?
-Four to<\/em>nes and to<\/em>neless \/ neutral tone:
1st tone: m\u0101  –  mother
2nd tone: má – hemp, linen
3rd tone: m\u01ce – horse
4th tone: mà – accuse, blame, curse, scold
Neutral tone: ma – a question particle best translated as: “…, or not?”<\/p>\n

– <\/p>\n

\u62fc\u97f3 p\u012bny\u012bn – Pinyin will rescue You to write down Your vocabulary without Chinese characters. And Pinyin will allow You to get the to<\/em>nes on paper. We will use the example word of “ma”.<\/p>\n

Tone1 – The high tone:<\/p>\n

Spoken with a high pitched voice it will be first tone.
m\u0101<\/p>\n

Tone2 – Rising tone:<\/p>\n

Spoken with beginning low, then rising to a high pitched voice.
má<\/p>\n

Tone3 – Falling and rising tone:<\/p>\n

You start with a high pitched voice, lower it and then go up again.
m\u01ce<\/p>\n

Tone4 – The falling tone:<\/p>\n

The word starts high pitched and falls down to a very low frequency according to some textbooks. I can hardly hear this falling but one thing that is clear. The word is spoken short with a aggressive voice.
mà<\/p>\n

The neutral tone or soft tone:<\/p>\n

This tone has no special pronounciation. Yet it is different from the other tones. It’s short, in a middle frequency and soft. Soft means no so loud as the other ones.<\/p>\n

_________________________________ <\/p>\n

What are the meanings of m\u0101 má m\u01ce mà ma?<\/p>\n

\u5988 m\u0101 – mother . Mother is the meaning of the character, however if  you want to say the word “mother” it’s  \u5988\u5988 (m\u0101ma).<\/p>\n

\u5988 m\u0101  –  mother
\u9ebb má – hemp, linen
\u9a6c m\u01ce – horse
\u9a82 mà – accuse, blame, curse, scold
\u5417 ma – a question particle best translated as: “…, or not?”<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

Thus, a nice little to<\/em>ngue twister of those with an interest in Chinese to<\/em>nes is:
\u5988\u5988\u9a91\u9a6c,\u9a6c\u6162,\u5988\u5988\u9a82\u9a6c\u3002<\/p>\n

Mother is riding a horse. The horse moves slowly. Mother curses the horse.
____
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